


The little girl in the laurel crown

by kwestieh



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt No Comfort, Male-Female Friendship, One Shot, Rape, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25762825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwestieh/pseuds/kwestieh
Summary: Calisto May wandered into Camp Half-Blood early December, just when the snow had started to come down heavier. She came from the forest, which was unusual, as the forest was full of monsters and magical beings that didn’t really like demigods.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	The little girl in the laurel crown

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. This is my first story, so please be gentle. Any suggestions on how to improve are always welcome. I've been wanting to write fanfic for a while, but I never know how to start. Thanks for reading! 
> 
> ***TRIGGER WARNING***  
> Rape/non-con in the last few paragraphs

Calisto May wandered into Camp Half-Blood early December, just when the snow had started to come down heavier. She came from the forest, which was unusual, as the forest was full of monsters and magical beings that didn’t really like demigods. Her entrance to the camp came at a rather sombre time, as a goddess and a much-loved camper were missing, with another lot of campers embarking on a quest to find them. She was given a quick rundown on the gods and then promptly shoved into the Hermes cabin, which now had a permanent air of sadness to it, as a result of Luke Castellan’s betrayal. Still, Calisto thought that the solid roof and flooring was better than the snow, even if they both were equally as cold.

*****

Calisto’s unusual entrance into camp foreshadowed her time there. During her first week she had somehow managed to get the entire Demeter cabin to hate her. There was a rather loud screaming match between the demigods. It was amusing for the other campers, seeing the usually calm and collected children of Demeter red faced and screaming at a short, defiant eight-year-old. The girl didn’t back down though. She screamed just as loud as the others. It ended with Chiron dragging Calisto away by the back of her jacket and Mr. D tipping the Demeter kids up with grapevines.

After the Demeter cabin had so clearly expressed their utter loathing for the girl, other cabins were quick to follow. The Ares kids thought she was too soft, the Athena kids thought she was too reckless, the Hephaestus kids still had nightmares of the time she visited their forge (how the kid managed to bend _every_ piece of metal in the workshop was unknown to all of them). Calisto very quickly found herself alone in the large, bustling camp.

*****

The first god Calisto met was Dionysus. Despite being at the camp for 2 months, they had managed to avoid each other. The god found the girl laying in the strawberry fields at sunset, watching as Apollo and Artemis greeted each other, before Apollo left to travel the southern hemisphere and Artemis continued travelling the northern. Meeting her wasn’t intentional, after all he despised most demigods, especially the ones at camp. But there was something about how at ease the girl looked, spread out in a strawberry patch, watching the sky. It made the god realise how _little_ the child actually was. So, with a grudging sigh, he sat down next to her to watch the exchange between his older sibling’s in the sky. They were both silent for quite a while. The girl turned to the god at twilight, when the light shining down on them changed from bright yellows, oranges and reds to cool purples and blues, and asked him how he grew his first grape vine. The god regarded the girl, whose golden curls were braided with leaves as green as her spring-time eyes. He turned back to the sky and began the story, the story he had only told one other, his beloved wife Ariadne. Calisto was lulled to sleep by the gods soothing voice, curled up next to him as tiny grape vines brushed her hair.

*****

The friendship between Mr. D and the new girl surprised Percy. When he returned with Annabeth, he was bombarded with complaints about the upstart eight-year-old that had managed to piss off half the camp. When he met the girl, he was expecting some snobby rich kid that was shoved at them because even their parents couldn’t deal with them anymore. What he got was a cute, shy little girl, who wore flowers and leaves in her hair and played pinochle with Mr. D and Chiron every afternoon. He had been shocked when he saw her skipping along with the god and centaur, holding hands with both (Chiron had to bend to keep her hand in his, but the bright smile he got was worth the effort). The friendship between the god and the girl really shouldn’t have surprised him so much, considering she had everyone _except_ the campers wrapped around her little finger. The god tried to act annoyed by the girl, but the soft eyes he gave her and the pretty gold grapevine bracelet on her wrist spoke otherwise. Percy really didn’t see the problem the campers had with her. I mean, yeah, she was a little unusual and she seemed to radiate power, but overall, she was just a cute little kid. Besides, he had bigger things to worry about, like finding Nico, helping Annabeth with her nightmares about Mount Othrys and preparing for war. (Percy would later regret ever thinking this).

*****

Calisto met her second god the first time she ran away. The stupid Demeter cabin was being mean again. They had caused the beautiful winter aconite she had twisted into a flower crown to wither and die. The little girl was so tired of the mean kids that lived in the camp, so, with all her eight-year-old reasoning, packed her bag and left a rather angry (and messy) note addressed to Dionysus, telling him not to worry and that it was all the _stupid, mean toad bugs fault_. She left the way she came, running through the forest, expertly dodging hanging branches and jumping over protruding tree roots.

She ended up at the very edge of the forest, in a pretty clearing on what was once a clear, grassy hill. It was nice. There was no snow and the laurel trees that surrounded the clearing were pretty and green. Hyacinth flowers dotted the clearing, their bright blue-purple bringing life to the empty space. Despite its pretty appearance, it held a weight she knew all too well. Death. It was strange, she thought as she lay down. Death should scare her. It should send chills down her spine and cause her to freeze in terror. Instead it was like a comforting blanket. It was familiar. It was almost like _home_. So, she lay there, in the clearing with the forlorn laurel trees and hyacinths that were bleeding colour, being slowly lulled to sleep by the light breeze that brushed against the branches, giving the plants a voice. _Wake child, and run. Run far and run clear. He is coming. He is coming…_

A sudden intense heat spread across the clearing, lighting up her small world. Opening her eyes, Calisto looked up through blurry vision. A bright beaming light stood above her, shaped like a man, but so much more.

“ _Hello little one. What are you doing in my grove?_ ”.

*****

Calisto was different after she returned. She was brighter, both literally and figuratively. The campers couldn’t figure out what changed at first. She still loved gardening and she still fought with just about everyone. She still danced in the strawberry fields at sunset and played pinochle at the Big House. But there was something off. Something strange. Maybe it was the pretty laurel and hyacinth flower crown that she hadn’t taken off since getting back from her impromptu camping trip. Maybe it was that she didn’t wear the grapevine bracelet Mr. D gave her, the one that she said she lost. Maybe it was the way she would run to the woods after sunset and emerged at sunrise. The campers didn’t know. But they had better things to think about, with the upcoming war and all. (They would all later regret ever thinking this).

*****

Calisto grew stronger in the Spring. Flowers bloomed everywhere she walked. Trees bent their branches so the leaves could brush her face. The grass she walked on seemed to grow before her every step, just so she could have something soft to walk on. The campers grew used to seeing her covered in plants. Vines wrapped around her arms, looking like elaborate, living bracelets. Flowers weaved together around her waist, creating belts for her sundresses. Leaves twisted in her hair, either braided or loosely hanging. Her laurel and hyacinth crown rested delicately atop her head. The girl looked like something from a fairy tale. The question of who her godly parent was floated around in gossip, options thrown around.

_“I think its Horae.”_

_“The goddess of seasons? Really? It has to be Actaeon.”_

_“He’s a god of the wilderness dumbass, not flowers.”_

_“It HAS to be Demeter. There is like, no other option.”_

The campers wanted to question her more, press about her powers and her newly acquired golden glow. But then Summer came and the Labyrinth opened and Calisto disappeared _again_. This time though, no one was worried or panicked because they had to build defences around Zeus’s fist and prepare for a fight they were probably going to lose. (They would all _really_ regret this later).

*****

Calisto met Artemis the second time she left camp. Apollo had told her all about his twin sister, especially about her club of ‘man-hating, sexually deprived maidens’. The goddess found her in the middle of Yellowstone National Park, planting lodgepole pines and juniper trees in an area that had been unlawfully cleared by campers. She was boosting the little saplings along, using her powers until they were a good meter and a half tall. Calisto didn’t want all her hard work to be wasted by mortals trampling the plants before they could properly grow.

It was her nature magic that drew Artemis to her in the first place. The goddess followed the gentle pull of the magic, allowing it to guide her to its source. She hadn’t felt power like this in _centuries_. When Artemis first lay eyes on the girl, she felt her breath leave her lungs and her heart leave her chest. This was no girl. In front of her was the _only_ being to ever steal her heart. Her first true friend. Her one and only lover. Her ultimate betrayer. Kneeling in the dirt, in a flowy white sundress decorated in flowers, with vines twirling around her arms and leaves braided in her hair was _“Callisto…”_.

The girl turned to look at the goddess, smiling brightly. Oh, Artemis had missed that smile.

“Lady Artemis”.

Her voice was different, more youthful and vibrant, like the horrors they had seen, _that they had endured_ , didn’t matter anymore. Her eyes had changed too, more like a green that you would see on the side of a grassy hill in spring, than the deep forest she remembered. As she observed, she grew sad and angry, a dangerous combination for any divine being.

“Oh, my precious Callisto. How I’ve missed you. You shouldn’t have returned. You should have stayed in the stars where I left you”.

The girl looked confused, like she didn’t understand what Artemis was saying.

“I let you go too easy last time. But never again. First my father, now my brother? Have you no shame?”.

The girl now looked scared, as she should be.

( _Artemis couldn’t help but remember the last time she had seen that look, when she cradled her stomach that held the bastard children of the king of gods and told her she loved them. Said that she loved her, but then begged her to ‘keep her children safe’_ ).

Artemis raised her bow ( _her hands were shaking_ ) and stared Callisto ( _her beautiful Callisto_ ) in her wrong coloured eyes. “Prepare to die, daughter of Lycaon”.

*****

Calisto shrieked. She was so scared and so, so confused, staring at the goddess, the one who was supposed to _protect_ maidens, who had her bow drawn and pointed. Right. At. Her. Head. Her shriek turned into a scream as the arrow flew, her hands flying up to cover her face. A small _ping_ sounded and then a dull thump. Peeking from between her fingers, she expected to see the pretty maiden goddess staring her down, but was instead greeted to a 3-meter-high wall of rock. The girl pulled her hands away from her face completely, and crawled over to the wall. Placing her hand on it, the girl looked around, expecting to see another god or maybe even a demigod. There was no one. No one at all. The ground started to shake. Calisto was so confused. She was so scared. She wanted to leave. _Now_. The earth underneath her feet split in two, sending her falling down into a deep pit, like Alice on her way to Wonderland.

*****

When Calisto woke up, all her plants were dead. The flowers were starting to decay, dropping mushy petals onto the skirt of her dress. The vines had hardened into wood and the leaves in her hair were dry and crunchy. The worst was her pretty flower crown, the one Apollo had specially made for her when they first met. The evergreen laurel was constantly moving and morphing, changing from plant to flesh in seconds, while the hyacinths oozed blood, painting scarlet stripe on her face and curls. Her whole body was shaking in fear, of both herself and the strange world she landed in.

She was in a garden, but not a real garden. The flowers were made from jewels and metals, and the only trees were pomegranates, bursting with plump fruit. Bones were piled around the edges of the jewel flowers, warning strangers that picking them came with a price. The strange garden filled her with fear. She wanted to leave and never return. But there was also a sense of belonging, like the entire array of precious, fake flowers and fruit trees was made only for her. This frightened her even more than the strange place itself. She turned from the garden and fled.

Calisto ran and ran. She ran through a large field, full of spectra’s that lunged and chirped at her. She ran past a giant dog, whose three heads turned and growled at her. She ran past a gleaming city surrounded by a great wall. She ran and ran and ran until she could no longer take a step. She had somehow managed to lead herself into a place even worse than the strange, alluring garden. All around her was screaming and pain. Shaking from both exhaustion and fear, the young girl curled into herself, covering her ears to block out the horrific sounds.

“ _Hello my sweet. What are you doing down here_?”.

Calisto looked up. In front of her was a woman, with glossy brunette hair and golden eyes. The girl’s eyes stung with tears as the woman knelt down in front of her.

“ _Oh, my poor girl_ , she cooed with a devilish smile, _let me help you…_ ”.

*****

The campers were losing. Even with the addition of Briares, Daedalus and his hellhound and Kampe gone, it was clear they weren’t going to win. The campers, the teenagers who couldn’t even legally drive, were exhausted and disheartened. They were slowly retreating, leaving behind the fallen bodies of their friends and family. “Retreat! We need to retreat!”. The campers fell back, crouching behind the last standing rock wall before the camp. The injured were being treated here. There were so many demigods, so many _children_ , groaning and crying from pain. Golden dust covered the campers faces, the tracks of their tears drawing crisp, sharp lines. The camp was still beautiful though. The light from the sunset bathed the camp, making the cabins glow golden and the glass windows in the Big House sparkle. The sweet smell of sun-baked strawberries mixed with the metallic scent of blood. The strange summer wind reminded campers of little Calisto. Many were glad she had disappeared. It meant she missed this. The downfall of Camp Half – Blood. It meant she wouldn’t be cowering in the Hermes cabin with the other young ones, wondering if the next thing to open the door would be a camper or a monster. She wouldn’t have to burn the shrouds of all their fallen friends. She wouldn’t have to see _war_.

*****

In her opinion, war was much better than the Fields of Punishment. She stood in a tree, watching as the last of the campers fled over the protective rock wall. From where she was, she could see how exhausted the campers were. How they’d given up. She wanted to help, but she hesitated. Even with the non-stop training she had received from Princess Medea, she was young, which meant she had little-to-no control over the amount of power she would need to stop the monster army from invading the camp.

“What are you waiting for, girl? This is your chance. Prove yourself, to your mother, to Chiron, to those _campers_ ”.

Medea may have helped her, but her hatred of children was slightly disturbing.

“What if I lose control”, she whispered. “What if I hurt someone?”.

The princess chuckled, as if the idea of Calisto hurting a camper was amusing. Knowing her, it probably was.

“My dear, sweet, innocent Calisto. That’s the _idea_. You need to lose control to gain control. Go down there and destroy the enemy. Go down there and _let go_ ”.

****

The soft thump was what caught Percy’s attention. He was supporting Nico, after the boy had overexerted himself by summoning skeleton soldiers. The sound of something landing softly in the middle of the monster army on the other side of the wall baffled Percy, because this was a battle and battles are anything but soft. So, ignoring the hissing whispers of literally everyone, Percy turned and looked behind the wall. All he was able to do was stare frozen at the scene in front of him. This caught the attention of the others, as Percy was well known for having the worst ADHD out of the whole camp. Twisting around slowly, the campers that were able to move looked behind the wall to see what Percy was looking at.

Standing in front of an army of monsters was cute, sweet, little Calisto May. Only she was different. Very different. Her sundress, the very same one she had left in, was brown and tattered. The flowers that wrapped around her waist were rotting. The vines that adorned her arms were wooden and splintered. Her laurel and hyacinth crown was moving, dripping blood like something out of a cheap horror movie. Her sun kissed skin was washed white and her face was far too gaunt for a girl that was barely nine. But despite the fact that she looked like a light breeze could blow her over, she stood strong. The monsters laughed. This was all the camp had left? A little, frail demigoddess? The girl raised her chin and spread her arms. Closing her eyes, she concentrated, focusing on the fragile glass ball inside her. She picked it up and cradled it, before raising her arms, and smashing it.

The plants crazy. They swung and smashed and strangled any monster in reach. The ground cracked open and spectral warriors emerged, screaming a battle cry as they charged at the beings that were out of the trees range. Some managed to get away, and made a break for Zeus’s fist. The rocks suddenly collapsed, golden dust seeping through the cracks in the pile. When the last monster vanished, the trees pulled back and the warriors melted into the ground, sealing the gaping slit in the earth. Calisto collapsed, falling to a knee. She was panting heavily, trying not to pass out. A tingling sensation filled her, and the plants that adorned her body, the ones that had been dead for so long, suddenly grew healthy and fresh, liked they had been just picked. Gasps and murmurs sounded behind her. She shut her eyes, suddenly knowing exactly what had happened.

“ _Kore. Goddess of spring, vegetation and flowers. Queen of the Underworld. Hail, Calisto May, daughter of Persephone_ ”.

*****

Calisto met her mother that night. She was sitting at the edge of the forest, looking over the camp and contemplating life. The goddess didn’t announce herself, just sat down silently beside her daughter. She didn’t look at her, didn’t acknowledge her. After a few moments, she finally asked the question that had been tormenting her for years.

“Why? Why did you only claim me now?”.

The goddess smiled sadly, looking at her only demigod child.

“The reason I don’t have any children isn’t because I am faithful to Hades. Just like him, I slip up and fall in love with mortals. But the difference between me and my husband is that my children gain a curse crueller than a hero’s fate.”

The girl turned to her mother, eyes shining with a strange mix of sadness and curiosity.

“I was not born Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, but Kore, goddess of flowers and vegetation. My powers were weak, less than that of a normal minor god. But then I met Hades. Contrary to what people may say, he didn’t kidnap me. I found the Underworld on my own and chose to stay. By choosing to stay, to become the Queen, to become _more_ , I changed. I evolved, something that gods rarely do. I became the goddess of Spring. But Spring isn’t just about flowers and fluffy animals. It’s about _rebirth_ , the world recovering and regrowing from Winter”.

The goddess turned away from her daughter. She whistled, and a small songbird landed on her outstretched finger. With brutality so common in divine beings, Persephone grabbed the bird and snapped its neck, dropping its body to the ground. Calisto gasped, grabbing the bird and cradling it to her chest.

“Why would you do that?! It was an innocent creature. It did nothing wrong!”.

The pretty goddess, the one who shared her golden curls and spring-green eyes, _her mother_ , stared at her sadly. She pointed at Calisto’s hands; the ones that were gently holding the poor bird’s body close to her heart.

“That’s why”.

A soft trill sounded the air. Shocked, Calisto pulled her hands from her chest and unclasped them. There, nestled in her palm, was the song bird, _alive_.

“My children always inherit the one gift they are forbidden to have. _The gift of life_ ”.

*****

The gift of life was not all flowers and sunshine, Calisto soon discovered. Every life she took from Thanatos took life from her. It was bittersweet, she mused. She could save every demigod that fell in this war in exchange for her own life. It wasn’t a bad trade, after all, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. There were only three main downsides to the gift. The first, obviously, being the fact that using it would eventually kill her.

The second being that the gift is a _major_ secret, one that only a few divine beings know about. This meant that no one could know. The weight of the truth was suffocating. It made her feel like Percy Jackson, who had to carry the burden of potentially being the downfall of Olympus since he was 12. Only this was worse. She knew something that even Zeus didn’t know. She wanted to tell every camper that glanced at her fearfully. She wanted them to know that _yes, she can make plants go psycho and raise the dead in a way that the son of Hades can’t even do, but it’s all ok, because she can bring people back to life_. But she couldn’t, as her mother had stressed over the fact that no one could know.

The third consequence was rather unexpected. She had somehow gained the undeterred affection of Apollo. Ok, so, it kind of made sense? Apollo was the god of healing, so it made sense that he enjoyed spending time with someone that could heal so well they could revive a person. But the affection? Before her claiming they spent a lot of time together. A lot more than normal for a god and a demigoddess. They worked well together though. Underneath all the weirdness, she was a gardener. And everyone knows that for plants to grow, they need sunlight. Apollo just happened to be the god of the sun as well. The affection part came after her claiming, though. The god found her wandering the forest the very next morning, and showered her with hugs and cheek kisses. The touching didn’t stop, it got more frequent, to the point where if she was alone and, in the sun, he was there, holding her hand, or hugging her from behind.

The gift giving followed. Little gifts, like handwritten poems and CD’s with music burned onto them, began appearing on her bed and in her bags. She only wore laurels and hyacinths now, though not by choice. It didn’t matter what she did, whether she was wearing flowers and vines or not, laurel branches would grow around her waist and wrap around her arms, while hyacinths wove through and choked the blooms that rested on her head. These actions confused her immensely. If she didn’t know better, she would think he’s claiming or even _courting_ her. But the thought was ridiculous, because she was _nine_ (her birthday had passed by without the campers knowing. Apollo gave her a golden crown, made to look like a laurel wreath, dotted with sapphire hyacinths and little ruby suns. It sat in its box at the bottom of her cupboard, collecting dust). Apollo may be a god with questionable mental health, but she was 100% certain that he was not a paedophile.

*****

Apollo first kissed her in the forest. It was the day before Summer holidays and Calisto was enjoying her last moments of peace and quiet by taking a walk. Spring could still be seen in the plant life, but the stifling Summer heat reminded her of the time of year. She wasn’t surprised when the sun god descended from the heavens to walk beside her. She wasn’t surprised when he grabbed her hand and pulled her close. She was, however, surprised when he forced her to stop, bent down to her level, then grabbed her face and pressed his lips to hers.

She froze, not knowing what to do. Her senses came back to her when he began to sit down, pulling her down and taking her with him. She began struggling, trying to push him away. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want _him_. He ignored her protests, choosing instead to push his tongue in her mouth, gagging her. It didn’t matter what she did, he was bigger and stronger and an actual fucking _god_. She had no choice. She had no voice.

He was soft and gentle. He whispered sweet nothings to her, telling her that _she was the perfect reincarnation of his defiant Daphne and beautiful Hyacinthus_. He brushed kisses all over her body and held her close after, until the sun set and the moon rose. Every touch he gave her felt worse than a thousand punches. Every word was poison in her mind. Every kiss tore a piece of her soul. She lay there in the moonlight, as bare as the day she was born, and she sobbed, her tears growing marigold flowers. Her grief, her _pain_ , infected the ground, snaking and traveling through the dirt. The Demeter cabins white lilies wilted and the children of Aphrodite’s roses turned black. Cypress trees sprouted and grew around the forest, taller and bigger, until their trunks touched and their branches intertwined, preventing entry and protecting their mistress. Her sorrow spread, draining the life out of plants and animals alike. At sunrise, the Summer campers arrived, and were greeted with the sight of a forest, caged by cypress and overflowing with marigolds.

*****

At sunrise, Hermes delivered a bouquet of tansy, yellow roses, rhododendron, yellow and pink carnations and bird's-foot trefoil to Apollo. It was addressed from Persephone.

**Author's Note:**

> Flower/plant meanings:  
> Grapevines: one of Dionysus's symbols  
> Laurel tree/wreath: on of Apollo's symbols  
> Hyacinth: the flower/plant that Hyacinthus, Apollo's lover, was turned into after he was killed, purple hyacinths also mean 'sorrow' and 'please forgive me'  
> Lodgepole pine/juniper tree: both native to Yellowstone National Park  
> Marigold: pain and grief  
> White lilly: purity  
> Black rose: death, hatred, despair, sorrow, mystery, danger, obsession  
> Cypress tree: death, mourning, despair, sorrow, also a symbol of Hades  
> Tansy: 'I declare war on you'  
> Yellow rose: friendship, apology, intense emotion, undying love; extreme betrayal, a broken heart, infidelity, jealousy  
> Rhododendron: warning, beware  
> Yellow carnation: rejection, disdain, disappointment  
> Pink carnation: a woman's love, a mother's love  
> Bird's-foot trefoil: revenge
> 
> Note: most of my knowledge about Greek mythology and the meaning of flowers and plants came from Percy Jackson and Wikipedia.  
> 


End file.
